Thursday, December 7, 2023  

---

Today’s Hymn

“Comfort, comfort now my people;
tell of peace!” So says our God.
“Comfort those who sit in darkness
mourning under sorrow’s load.
To my people now proclaim
that my pardon waits for them!
Tell them that their sins I cover,
and their warfare is now over.”

Johannes Olearius’s “Comfort, Comfort Now My People”
trans. Catherine Winkworth
from Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal

---

Reflection

Reading Bryan Stevenson’s moving biographical narrative in Just Mercy, I am struck by his insight working with those caught up in the criminal justice system. He says, that “simply punishing the broken — walking away from them or hiding them from sight — only ensures that they remain broken and we do, too.”

The journey in Isaiah’s prophecy from punishment to mercy, from brokenness to wholeness, suggests that God understands this dynamic well. And the healing of the torn fabric of human community is God’s ultimate aim. That is the basis for Isaiah’s words “comfort, comfort” that we hear in Johannes Olearius’s hymn.

We need not have endured the trials of incarceration to understand the special feeling of being released from prolonged sorrow. The cause is often incidental to the feeling of true relief when a longtime burden that we have shouldered is finally lifted. Think of times where you have sat in dread or even dread of the dread, until one day, seemingly out of nowhere, the cloud of despair lifts due to a finite event or even a grace for which you cannot account.

That feeling of relief turning to healing is so precious, but it seems so far away for those who languish with a broken spirit or in a broken situation. To understand God’s pardon of us we need someone who will tell it.

So perhaps that is our duty this Advent season: to tell those who do not yet know or feel God’s grace that it is real, that peace is and can be a possibility. We’ve got to tell it and keep telling it to one another.

One of the things that Stevenson did with his clients is to insist that the journey, though arduous, is possible. He preached peace. We must do so among our neighbors and kin, our community and country, and the world’s struggling, fearful people. Whoever you can tell it today, tell them.

---

Prayer
God of comfort and hope, remove from us the doubting voice that would linger in fear, shame, and condemnation. Lift our countenance and spirits with an image of grace and peace that will nourish us, your people, in these days. Amen.

---

Written by Joe Morrow, Associate Pastor for Evangelism and Community Engagement

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

Devotion index by date | I’d like to receive daily devotions by email